Day 9 - 5/01/2003

TOM:

Day 9 – Today's trip was from Kingman, AZ to Seligman, AZ. The distance was 84.55 miles. The elevation at the start was about 3300 feet and the elevation at Seligman is about 5300 feet (a change of 2000 feet). Our highest peak was about 5600 feet. Most of the elevation changes were gradual. The first 52 miles we covered in 4 hours for an average of 13 miles per hour. These numbers remind me of playing cards which have 4 suits with 13 cards each for a total of 52 cards. The next hour (hour 4 to 5 riding time) we covered 16 miles. During the 5th to 6th hour we covered 13 miles and the last 4 miles took us 11 miniutes 49 seconds for an average of 20 .3 miles per hour. This was a great way to end the day, down hill when you are tired and traveling at 20 miles per hour is invigorating. Our total riding time was 6:11:49 and the total time including all the stops was 8 hours and 40 minutes. We had many stops today - several to pump up tires and change tubes, a long lunch in Peach Springs with Lucille and a special treat of Indian Fry Bread. Lucille stopped when we were about 4 miles from Peach Springs changing a flat tire. She rode ahead to check out the town and locate our special treat. Our total trip today was on Route 66 and was the best section of Route 66 that we traveled. It was well maintained and had a wide shoulder for riding the bike. We met a couple of bikers about 20 miles out of Kingman stopped on the side of the road. They were traveling toward the west from Seligman, AZ to Topock,AZ, which is mostly down hill. We saw a variety of great sites today. We traveled through some rocky mountainous areas and some high plateau areas with beautiful flowers and the flat top mountains in the distance. We also saw several trains again today. They were all long and looked great traveling through the desert area. Another great day!

ERIC:

Day 9 - (5/1/03) Today can be summed up in two words - 'flat tires'. It started out with Dad having a flat tire before we left for the day. The last flat was mine about 9 miles before town. All together we had 7 flat tires and three of them we needed to replace the tube. We got good at it. Our tires keep getting little wires stuck in them about the size of a staple. I think they are from the steel in steel belted car tires. The ride was great while we were riding. Northern Arizona is a very beautiful place. We rode across a lot of big open spaces. The weather changed today from cloudless blue skies to little fluffy clouds to a gray sky. We think we may have rain in the next few days. We are at 5300 feet so the wind is a bit colder. The day was a climb, but not too bad. We rode on Route 66 again today. "It winds from Chicago to LA. So if you ever plan to motor west. Take the highway thats the byway thats the best. Get your kicks on Route 66". This stretch is great. It had a couple of small one-horse towns and we also went into an Indian reservation. We stopped and had a local favorite, 'Indian Fry Bread'. It was not bad when it was hot and dipped in honey. We saw a lot of prairie dogs in the fields today. I think they are prairie dogs. They were cute, fast and shy. I was unable to get a picture. We are staying at the Historic Motel 66 in Seligman, AZ. For dinner we are going next door to the Road Kill Cafe. I am going to see if they have Praire Dog Burgers.

Typical drying up one-horse town on Route 66

Wonderful rocks outside of Kingman

We still saw many long trains.

Tops of the mountains are all flat.

Lucille:

May 1 - Thursday - My exploration of Kingman this morning centered on Beale Street. I visited the Mojave Museum of History and Art and enjoyed the interesting exhibits about southwestern history. One of their rooms featured Andy Devine, a local boy who made good as an actor and was in many western movies from the 1930's - 1960's. The part of Route 66 that goes through Kingman is named Andy Devine Blvd. It just so happened that the older part of Beale Street was lined with antique shops, so of course I had to investigate all of them. I took Route 66 all the way to Seligman. I travelled through the Hualapi Indian reservation. 4 miles west of the town of Peach Springs I spotted Tom and Eric on the road and fortunately there was a place where I could pull over. We arranged that we would have our picnic lunch in Peach Springs. A woman in one of the antique shops in Kingman told me that when we were in Indian territory we must absolutely try their delicious Indian fry bread. There was a restaurant across the street from the area where we decided to picnic, so I went in and bought some fry bread to go and we added that to our lunch. The scenery was beautiful. Eric and Tom have described it in their journals. We are staying at Historic Route 66 Motel. Seligman is a cute little western town. It's lucky we called for reservations here 2 days ago because, as we suspected , accommodations were tight. Starting tomorrow and through the weekend is the annual Fun Run, a vintage car show and parade that starts in Seligman and continues to Kingman and Oatman. Last year there were about 900 cars. We will miss the actual event because we don't want to get too far behind on our schedule but we expect to see some of these cars on the road headed toward Seligman. I'm going to hang around town until early afternoon so I'm sure I'll see part of it. Today in front of some old western buildings I saw a plaque that said, "On this spot in 1861, nothing happened." We ate at the Roadkill Cafe, a colorful place with adjoining bar and pool tables and drinks served in Mason Ball canning jars. Tom's iced tea was served in a quart jar. The music in the cafe was country. The waitress made a point of telling Eric that the French fries he ordered were Freedom fries. Since we left California we're noticing smoking in the restaurants. We were unable to get computer hookup today, so we'll be sending this off a day late. Tomorrow we're headed for Flagstaff.

Day Nine - 5/01/2003